Product: Type S AC01994-60/6 Universal Holder Review.

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Type S Universal Holder is the answer for all your gadgets. This holder is universally design for phones, iPods, mp3, GPS, PDA, and more. Arms extend wider and forward to fit most gadgets available today. Clips to air vent.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2948 in Automotive
• Brand: Type S
• Model: AC01994-60/6
• Dimensions: 1.00″ h x 5.50″ w x 7.80″ l,

Features

• Clips to air vent
• Arms extend wide and forward to fit all gadgets

Effective, great price
I bought this for my iPod, but while waiting for the iPod adapter for my car to arrive, my Blackberry moved in to this holder and doesn’t want to move out. Positioned on the vent, I can actually use the BB’s speakerphone comfortably. The vent clip attaches very securely. The arms adjust for width, depth, and height of the mobile device to create a custom fit. I test-fit the iPod (while the Blackberry was out for a walk) and the Type-S adjusted to hold my Gen. 4 20GB iPod even while still riding in its protective case (Contour Design 4G Showcase). The only drawback as far as I’m concerned is that buttons on the Blackberry get pressed while sliding it in and out of the holder. But this may be a common problem among these universal holders. For this price, it’s not a big deal. Now to order a second one for the iPod!

NOT so universal
Pro: 2D adjustable — I mean, both the width and the thickness of the gadget.

Con: NOT as universal as it is advertised for. It may works perfectly for phones or mp3s, but definitely NOT for GPSs. Even if your GPS is a super-slim one that fits into it, the plastic will definitely NOT hold the weight of a GPS.

Works very well
This holds my iPod Touch perfectly and attached effortlessly to the vents. I added a bit of sticky-backed foam to the parts the iPod rests against to prevent it from jiggling and to hold the device more gently and firmly. The need to do that is why I gave this four instead of five stars. I would absolutely buy it again.

Compare & Purchase The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child Sears Parenting Library at Amazon by clicking here!

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Amazon Price: $10.07

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The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child Sears Parenting Library Description:

With the spate of publicity surrounding the possible health risks posed by childhood immunization, parents are no longer simply following doctor’s orders and automatically having their children vaccinated. Instead, they are asking questions. The problem is the search for answers only leads parents to conflicting, one-sided information: doctors claim that parents are endangering their child’s life if they refuse shots, while radical vaccine opponents claim parents are endangering their child’s life if they accept shots. With THE VACCINE BOOK, parents finally have one, fair, impartial, fact-based resource they can turn to for answers. Each chapter is devoted to a disease/vaccine pair and offer a comprehensive discussion of what the disease is, how common or rare it is, how serious or harmless it is, the ingredients of the vaccine, and any possible side effects from the vaccine. Ultimately, parents will have to make their own informed decisions as Dr. Bob Sears is neither pro-vaccine nor anti-vaccine. But THE VACCINE BOOK will provide exactly the information parents want and need as they make their way through the vaccination maze.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #790 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316017503
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews:

Gives parents the info to make their own decisions
As soon as I heard Dr. Bob Sears would be releasing a book to help parents make vaccine decisions, I pre-ordered it and waited two months for it to be published and arrive on my doorstep.

The Vaccine Book was well worth the wait. Finally, I was able to read detailed information about each vaccine choice available for my children. Dr. Sears thoroughly investigates all the options and lays them on the table for parents to decide. I worried that this approach might be a little wishy washy and leave me with more questions than answers, but he manages to get everything out there.

I’ve read plenty of pro-vax and no-vax literature. Most is either staunchly against any immunizations or suggests that parents should ask no questions and just do what the nice doctor says. There are even a few things written somewhere in between, in which the authors present their recommendations. It’s hard to find something that presents all the facts so parents can make educated decisions. This book did it for me.

The Vaccine Book is very readable. Dr. Sears writes in language a layperson like me can easily understand. His conversational style makes it feel like he’s sitting and talking to me. He’s even a little funny at times. I especially enjoy his use of Star Trek wisdom (p. 220).

He goes through each of the 12 standard vaccine choices and answers the same questions for each vaccine-preventable disease: Is it common? Is it serious? Is it treatable? When is the vaccine given? How is the vaccine made? What ingredients are in the final solution? (Including “Are any of these ingredients controversial?”) What are the side effects? Should you give your baby this vaccine? (Includes reasons to get it, reasons some people choose not to, travel considerations, and options to consider when getting it.) He ends each chapter with “The way I see it” summarizing key factors, yet he does not send a message that parents must do it one way or another. He covers special vaccines for travel and combination vaccines that reduce the number of shots given. There’s a chapter for parents who decide to delay or decline vaccinations and one called “What Should I Do Now?” He offers Dr. Bob’s Alternative Vaccine Schedule near the end of the book. It ends with 20 pages of additional resources in which he summarizes journal articles.

Reading The Vaccine Book left me confident I could make the right vaccination decisions for each of my children.

And a big plus for me: He recognizes breastfeeding as a way to reduce disease risk. On his list of eight ways to boost your child’s immune system, “breastfeed” is No. 1.

The web site www.thevaccinebook.com promises online updates to the book as vaccines and data change. There’s also a forum, blog and other resources.

This book is AWESOME!
I got this book in the mail yesterday and have already finished it. It’s great! For each disease, Dr. Sears lists the following questions: What is this disease? Is it common? Is it serious? Is it treatable? When is the vaccine given? How is it made? What ingredients are in the final solution? Are any of these ingredients controversial? What are the side effects? He then lists the reasons to get the vaccine, the reasons NOT to get the vaccine, travel considerations and his own opinion. These are exactly the questions that I wanted answered.

I would say that Dr. Sears is pro-vaccination, but also for a selective/separated vaccination schedule. He provides such a schedule in his book. He also discusses the controversies surrounding some of the ingredients in the vaccines, namely aluminum and human/animal tissues. This section will make any parent pause and question whether they really want these things injected into their child. He drew his information from the medical literature (or lack thereof in some cases). He provides a detailed “Resource” section at the end of the book so that you can pull all of his journal article, if you so choose.

Overall, this book was informative and well-balanced. Dr Sears does not go into great depth with each vaccine, which makes the book light reading, especially for a book on vaccinations. If you would like a more in-depth analysis, I would recommend Aviva Jill Romm’s book “Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents Guide”.

Frustrating….
This book is well written, well organized, and useful to a degree. Unfortunately all the well organized information comes from the product literature by the pharmaceutical companies and rather depth-lacking governmental data.

If you want regurgitated information in an easy to understand format, this is your book.

I was hoping for more discussion about the more controversial issues, but in the end he generally goes with “conventional wisdom”. He often states that there is no research to support some of the concerns parents have, but I believe this lack of research is the root of much concern. His delayed schedule still requires 11 vaccinations before 1 year and most are multiple vaccines per visit at one month intervals.

I will keep looking for a resource that balances up-to-date research with a healthy level of skepticism. Wish me luck.

From Publishers Weekly
Sears, coauthor of several books in the Sears Parenting series, addresses one of today’s most controversial and worrisome questions. Sears’ goal is “to give you a balanced look at pros and cons of vaccination so that you can make an educated decision.” Sears does not advocate for or rail against vaccination, stating it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing decision-there are choices. The first 12 chapters discuss each vaccination in the childhood series, providing explanation of the relative disease, how the vaccine is made and points to assess a child’s at-risk level when considering if the vaccine is necessary. Sears does offer guidance for those who are indecisive, offering his opinion based on clinical experience and 13 years of research taken from product inserts, pediatric reference books, articles and databases. Additional chapters illuminate more controversial aspects of the debate, such as how vaccine safety is researched and what the findings are, side effects and how to minimize them, common myths and questions. As always, Sears’ tone puts readers at ease as he clearly explains medical terms and elucidates debates.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
An exhaustively researched guidebook. (Newsday )

It’s the most evenhanded and thorough look at baby immunizations we’ve yet seen. (Babytalk )

About the Author
Robert Sears is a board certified pediatrician in private practice with his father, William Sears. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University and completed his pediatric training at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of The Baby Book (revised edition), The Premature Baby Book, and The Baby Sleep Book.

Product: Gateway NV5915u 15.6-Inch Laptop NightSky Black Lowest Price!

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Compare Prices on Gateway NV5915u 15.6-Inch Laptop NightSky Black

Gateway NV5915u Notebook comes with these specs, Intel Core i3-330M Processor with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Windows 7 Home Premium, 15.6- Inch HD Widescreen Ultrabright LED-backlit Display, Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset, 4096MB DDR3 1066MHz Memory, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD, 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, 4X Blu-ray Disc/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive, Built-in Webcam, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, High-Definition Audio Support, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N WiFi CERTIFIED, 4 - USB 2.0 Ports, HDMI Port, Multi-gesture Touchpad, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh), up to 3-hours 10 minutes of battery life, 5.84 lbs. | 2.65 kg (system unit only), AC Power Adapter, AC Power Cord, Wireless Setup Card, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card, Norton Internet Security 2009 (60-day trial)

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1590 in Personal Computers
• Color: Black
• Brand: Gateway
• Model: NV5915u
• Dimensions: 1.46″ h x 14.66″ w x 10.19″ l, 9.15 pounds
• CPU: Intel Core i3 2.13 GHz
• Memory: 4MB SODIMM
• Hard Disk: 500GB
• Processors: 2
• Battery type: Lithium Ion
• Display size: 15.6

Features

• 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M Processor with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
• 4GB DDR3 1066MHz Memory
• 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, 4X Blu-ray Disc/DVD-Super Multi Double-layer Drive
• 15.6″ HD Widescreen Ultrabright LED-backlit Display; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD
• Windows 7 Home Premium; Up to 4 Hours 30 Minutes of Battery Life

Love it!
I have had nothing but Gateway desktop pc’s. This my first laptop and very happy with Gatweway NV5921u! Fast,quiet and very cool running! The blue cover looks awesome with the alligator motif! The touchpad has the multi-gesture feature! I have to get used to it but neat feature! The blu-ray player is nice feature and will output to HDTV. Time will tell how she holds up but I think this baby will keep on rockin!
The only downside might be battery life–about 3 hours-but that is about average I understand.–the blu-ray player really sucks the power BTW! Did I mention how “Light” she is! Way more portable than a 17 inch laptop! The 15 inch screen might be smallish compared to a 17 incher but fine for me! A Webcam is included as well. Grab one now!

Great purchase
Bought it for my daughter’s college graduation and she loves it, her best gift as of yet. Great price, fast delivery and excellent product.

AK_Chicago
I bought this primarily for Blu-Ray player, to occasionally hook up to HD TV in family room / bedroom, and not needing to invest in multiple BD players. Generally good machine but found out couple of annoying things with the blu-ray player. This comes with Power DVD8.. specifically when playing blu-ray DVDs (1) The output can go to EITHER built-in screen or the TV but not both simultaneously and (2) the mouse does not work to control/select (menu items etc), it has to be keyboard with arrows/enter keys, like in DOS days!

So I contacted gateway (thru the customer service “chat”), who, after “registration” info and rest of my life history tell me that they do not support “third party” things (like this Power DVD) and only hardware + OS. But here is the kicker, they will be happy if I called “answers by gateway” where the charge meter will start one minute into call.

So machine is ok (even good, but there are many out there) just the customer service and the main thing I wanted (blu-ray player) to work reasonably well, sucks. I should have done more research and stuck to more ’standard’ brands, in hindsight, learning you get what you pay for.

Product: IG-B01A: i.Trek Bike Mount for Garmin Nuvi 200, 200W, 250, 250W, 260, 260W, 270, 205, 205W, 255, 255W, 265T, 265WT, 275T, 500, 550, 750, 760, 770, 780 Lowest Price!

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Compare Prices on IG-B01A: i.Trek Bike Mount for Garmin Nuvi 200, 200W, 250, 250W, 260, 260W, 270, 205, 205W, 255, 255W, 265T, 265WT, 275T, 500, 550, 750, 760, 770, 780

Easy to mount: No Screws needed, just to pull tight the elastic.Compatibility# Garmin Nuvi 200, 200W, 250, 250W, 260, 260W, 270# Garmin Nuvi 300, 310, 350, 360, 370# Garmin Nuvi 600, 610, 650, 660, 670, 680# Garmin Nuvi 710, 750, 760, 770, 780# Garmin Nuvi 850, 880# Garmin Nuvi 5000# Garmin StreetPilot C550, C580# StreetPilot i Series

• Brand: i.Trek
• Model: IG-B01A

Features

• Support weight: 500g
• Fit tube diameter: 20mm ~ 28mm
• Cable length: 14.5 cm
• 360″ Swivel tip allows landscape or portrait viewing
• Compatible with bike and motorcycle

Very nice Garmin GPS mount
I have a Panavise mount in my vehicle and this mount works really well to hold the GPS to it. It is simple to use and seems to hold very well. The picture does not really show how this works. The strap comes out so that you can wrap it around things, then you pull it tight. It really holds well.

Does the job
Received this mount today. Easily mounts to handlebar or stem and does not slip. Put GPS (Garmin 200 nuvi )on mount and took it for a ride.Very sturdy, does not vibrate too much,. Good on bumps, wouldn’t try a curb at speed.Very adjustable. Set GPS to dashboard screen, tells you more than an cycle speedo can tell you at 1 glance. Went and ordered 2 more when I came back from my ride.

rubber bands will make it work
I purchased this bike/motorcycle mount after reading the reviews which said that the GPS falls off upon hitting a hard bump. The first thing I did was tie a knot in the end of two rubber bands and then use the loop formed to push the rubber bands over the ball post. I then snapped the unit onto the ball and stretched the other loop of the rubber bands around the unit.

I found that my gps (Nuvi 400) did fall off the ball at first, however it stayed right there due to the rubber bands holding it. After a bit of adjustment of the rubber bands it stayed on the ball even off road, hitting really big bumps.

Also, I found that the strap that goes around the handlebars which hold the attachment in place cannot be tightened enough to not have it slide around due to the weight of GPS. To remedy this, I drlled a small hole through the strap into the handlebar and put a small screw in to keep it from slipping. This worked fine.

All in all, the bike mount worked as I expected and I did enjoy having it on my bike as I did a 30 mile trip on the canals in Phoenix AZ. Seems that manufacturers would have thought of these two obvious problems.

If you do not use rubber bands, and you try to put it on a bicycle, you can expect to see your GPS go bouncing and sliding on the ground. The ball mount is not strong enough.

Compare & Purchase ASUS N61JQ-A1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop Dark Brown at Amazon by clicking here!

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Amazon Price: $1,124.99

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ASUS N61JQ-A1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop Dark Brown Description:

Enjoy true entertainment and real sound with the ASUS N61JQ. Equipped with Intel’s new Core i7-720QM processor and an ATI 5730 graphics engine with 1GB DDR3 VRAM, the N61JQ brings users true-to-life images for games, movies and videos. Dedicated resonance space arrangement provides sound layering and enhanced detail. With 2.5 watt TV standard sound output and a 21cc amplifier, the N61JQ improves and balances audio reproduction across different sonic ranges, particularly for vocals and low-band bass. Together with Altec Lansing speakers supported by SRS Premium Sound, the N61JQ provides crisp, clear audio reproduction and a truly surreal audio experience while on-the-go. A multi-touch touchpad allows users to scroll, rotate, as well as zooming-in and out while surfing the web or browsing multimedia intuitively. Lastly, the sunken-hinge design of the N61JQ provides a more comfortable view by providing users with a wider and more ergonomic viewing angle. The notebook comes with the ASUS 360 service program that includes a 2 year global warranty, one month zero bright dot guaranty, free two-way standard shipping, twenty-four hour tech support seven days a week, and a one year accidental damage warranty, protecting the notebook from drops, fire, spills and surge.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96 in Personal Computers
• Color: Dark Brown
• Brand: Asus
• Model: N61JQ-A1
• Dimensions: 1.50″ h x 10.60″ w x 15.40″ l, 6.50 pounds
• CPU: Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz
• Memory: 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Hard Disk: 500GB
• Processors: 2
• Display size: 16

Features

• 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-720QM Processor
• 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, 2 slots, 8GB Max
• 500GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM); Super Multi Optical Disk Drive; Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn
• 16-Inch HD LED LCD Widescreen Display; Bluetooth; HDMI Port; 2.0MP Webcam; ATI 5730 Graphics Engine with 1GB DDR3 Dedicated VRAM
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System

Customer Reviews:

In-Depth Review
Just got this. Looked at it for a few days on […] to get detailed specs and customer reviews before purchasing. I only bought it on amazon because the next day shipping was cheaper (about $[…]) and the computer itself was $[…] less on amazon.

Haven’t pushed the pedal to the metal as far as ram, HDD, and CPU go. There is an overclocking speed (called Turbo Boost) that is automatic. With windows 7 (instaleld) the Turbo Boost app lets you see the CPU ramping up. It shows that the CPU rutinely goes up to 2.6 Ghz when opening an application (not very intensive work) so I am not sure how accurate the gadget is, but we’ll see. When compared to what else is out there, this coputer has much more for your money and is actually cheaper than many laptops with less power/graphics capability/coolness. Look at the prices at Best Buy for an Core i3 laptop. They are nearly $1000 and don’t have as much ram, video memory, or upgrade potential. This is a Core i7, much more powerful and is less than alot of the laptops out there. Plus, Asus has a 1 year accidental warranty. Tops!

Pros:
-Amazon said it would be Brown, mine was black when I got it. Brown is ugly anyway!

- You can create a recovery DVD to fix everything in the event you scrw something up. Also, has a bootup recovery option built in, so even if you don;t have the disks, it can be recovered.

- 1 year replacement/repair “i dropped it in a pool” warranty.

-Shipping. For the price of the computer, get the 30.00 next day. I order by 3:00PM on thursday and had the computer booted up at 3:15PM friday.

-Nice looking computer. Great sound. Great price. (You can get a lesser model without the i7 CPU from Best Buy for 999.00)

-USB 3.0 is nice touch. Cool touchpad with “gesture” recognition.

-I like the screen. The resolution is said to be a little low/poor for the machine, but I do not yet find it to be a problem. You can zoom in and out using the touchpad and gestureing, so if the icons look to big/small, you can change it up without messing with screen resolution. Basically, you can keep it in 1377×768 mode. HD screen looks good to me. Bright too.

-HDMI output! You can hook this thing up to your big ass HD flat screen.

- With Windows 7, some “gadgets” aka iphone style “apps” that can be installed to the desktop require 32bit. This computer has the 64bit Windows 7 so you have to do some playin around to get those gadgets to work. Pandora is one of those. However, you can have a applet for Pandor Radio on the desktop without needing an open internet explorer window. Cool!

- POwer saving one-touch button. NOt sure how effcient it is yet.

- So far, Windows 7 is not that bad. Yet.

CONS:

- A lot of “bloatware” on this baby. You have to sort throught it all and see what you like/don;t like and uninstall whatever you can live without.

- At initial boot up, 80 processes running! Ouch. 33% of RAM in use. That’s over a Gig. Trim down the fat and you should be good.

-The first time I launched the “See how cool this Asus computer is” demo, I needed to lower the volume. Whn I did so, the computer locked up, blaring a annoying sound. I had to hold th epower button for 4 sec to turn off manually. Not cool. After that though, all seems cool.

- The keyboard is a little cheap, has some play to it. Go to Best BUy and type on one of their floor models to see if it is bad for you or not. Not a deal breaker for me, but kinda lame. The “full size keyboard is not true, it is laptop sized with a number padd on the right. The arrow keys (if you play games or use spreadsheets) are small and you can easily miss them and hit the 0 or control key.

- With Windows 7, some “gadgets” aka iphone style “apps” that can be installed to the desktop require 32bit. This computer has the 64bit Windows 7 so you have to do some playin around to get those gadgets to work. Pandora is one of those. However, you can have a applet for Pandor Radio on the desktop without needing an open internet explorer window. Cool!

- A lot of Asus “this and that” programs to deal with. I uninstalled half of them.

BOTTOM LINE:

Buy it. Remove what you don’t like. Great deal. If you were going to spend 800, drop an extra 2 bills and get this one. If you were going to spend 1200, save you money and get yourself a case for this one once you buy it.

Great laptop
This is my first ASUS laptop. This laptop is simply excellent when compared to my other XPS laptop. Very good features and excellent performance. Also the weight is not that much ( I expected more weight since it is 16 inch laptop). the display is superb. Great laptop for a decent price. This laptop could be much more better if it has a blue ray drive.

Great System
I am very happy with this laptop. I use it for development, gaming and watching movies, it does all of this very well. The only thing I am not too ecstatic about is the extra “features” preinstalled, and maybe it not having 1920×1080 resolution.

Compare & Purchase Meguiar’s M4616 Gold Teak Oil - 16 oz at Amazon by clicking here!

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Meguiar’s M4616 Gold Teak Oil - 16 oz Description:

Meguiar’s M4616 Gold Teak Oil protects teak, rejuvenating the rich, natural golden wood colors. Prevents drying out of wood from exposure to the elements. Great for bulk heads, hatch covers, swim steps, guard rails and decking.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75 in Automotive
• Brand: Meguiar’s
• Model: M4616
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Customer Reviews:

Outdoor Furniture
This is pretty impressive oil. I found it difficult to find locally which is why I ordered it online. We used it on all of our outdoor teak furniture and it immediately brought the color back to the original finish. It does have an odor so you have to be careful on using it on indoor furniture. This oil is very durable and lasts a long time if applied correctly.

Like New!
Meguiar’s Gold Teak Oil really made my beat up outdoor table look like new. I put on one coat so far and it looks like new. It takes 3 coats the bottle says, but it looks jut great! I’m going to keep a bottle in my cupboard at all times!!

Excellent product
This teak oil does exactly what it is supposed to do - if you are unfamiliar with teak oil, be advised that it is not a varnish - it is an oil treatment that must be re-applied regularly to the wood. It is a beautiful protectant against drying out, but will not permanently change the color of the wood, and it is absorbed. I use it monthly on the teak flooring and benches of my shower and once or twice a year on my redwood outdoor furniture. I am delighted with the results.

Compare & Purchase The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World at Amazon by clicking here!

List Price: $16.00

Amazon Price: $10.88

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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Description:

A richly original look at the origins of money and how it makes the world go ’round

Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of our financial system, from its genesis in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. What’s more, Ferguson reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history, arguing that the evolution of credit and debt was as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization. As Ferguson traces the crisis from ancient Egypt’s Memphis to today’s Chongqing, he offers bold and compelling new insights into the rise- and fall-of not just money but Western power as well.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1518 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780143116172
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews:

Good overall narrative, sketchy on the details
Angry about the bankers going bust? Ferguson starts from this premise to educate the reader into the history behind how international finance got to its current position. Beginning with loan tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, Ferguson traces the origins of government lending, the stock market, the bond market, the mysteries of quants, and a fascinating final chapter on how China and America have up to now been in a symbiotic relationsip with Chinese goods funding American avarice, but this may not be for much longer.

Ferguson’s books have been getting bigger and more ambitious the more famous as he has become. With this comes a necessary amount of reductive argument, lurching from Glasgow loan sharks, to Potosi silver mines, to the reckless Scotsman John Law who set up a French state bank in the 18th Century which ended up ruining its investors. This is probably because, like all Ferguson’s recent books, it is a TV tie in.

Ferguson is also very much in favour of globalisation and international finance. He plugs the book in the introduction as a teaching tool for those who are sceptical or shaky of the systems that drive money around the world. Wise up, or be a loser is his essential message. This book was finished just before the great bank collapse, and as a result doesn’t have much to say on the current crisis.

This kind of chest thumping history is clearly very lucrative for Ferguson, but after his brilliant early books on the Rothschilds and the First World War, one can’t help thinking with his mid career media don posing, he has acted a bit like the hedge fund managers such as Ken Griffin he idolises in this book who gained great wealth at the expense of something more solid, decent and lasting.

The Financial Subplot
Niall Ferguson has written an easily accessible and very entertaining history of finance, ranging from the clay tokens of Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago to the hedge funds of today. The title of this book has apparently been modelled on Jacob Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man,” and like that book it will be made into a television series. Being a television celebrity is not something that wins the admiration of one’s peers in the history profession, to say the least. But those little rebukes are relatively mild compared to the scorn he received for his political views in Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power and Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. In those works he argued that empire was beneficial not only to the mother country but the dominated countries as well. In this work he chronicles not only the history of money but also makes a case for liberalized finance.

Ferguson examines the financial subplot behind some of the major historical powers such as the role of money in ancient Mesopotamia, the denarius in Roman society, and gold and silver in the civilization of the Incas. He is very good in his descriptions of financial families like the Medicis and the Rothchilds, and how they became banking dynasties. Another memorable episode was the rise of Amsterdam as the world’s financial center and the center’s subsequent shift to London.

History is also filled with financial disasters of which we are well aware today. Ferguson tells the story of John Law and how he became France’s head of finance. He engineered a financial bubble that took them several generations to overcome. Making matters worse, it occurred at the same time as the British South Sea Bubble.

Also instructive is the history of the first great globalization (1870-1914). (For this period also read Jeffrey Frieden’s Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century.) The world had become so economically interdependent that the pundits believed the possibility of war between great powers had been eliminated. This sentiment was famously expressed in “The Great Illusion” by Norman Angell.

Although this book was written before the current economic crisis, the last chapter is very prescient. “From Empire to Chimerica” tells of the symbiotic relationship between China and America. The combined country “accounts for just over a 10th of the world’s land surface, a quarter of its population, and a third of its economic output, and more than half of the global economic growth of the last eight years”. This relationship, in which China saves and America spends, and in which China’s savings is used to enable America to spend even more, is clearly unsustainable. Ferguson sees this savings glut as the cause of the current subprime crisis. That, in my humble opinion, was one of the causes; there were many bad actors involved in this catastrophe, citizen-borrowers included.

Although it is not obvious to everyone in the midst of a crisis, Ferguson correctly points out that financial engineering is one of the great forces behind human progress. The history of finance is a process of creative destruction. Financial risk-taking is necessary for economic expansion and human development, and Ferguson does a good job in making the case. Too bad it reads like a script made for the History Channel.

TV tie-in, not a history book
When I was given this book, my heart leapt because I know Niall Ferguson is a robustly contrarian, sharp, articulate and well-informed historian, but it sank immediately that I saw that the book, like many of his recent works, was again based on a television series. Ferguson is a man of genuine talent; it is a shame he chosen to prostitute that talent. No doubt “The Ascent of Money” made for a TV show of far more than average quality, but the book is necessarily scrappy and somewhat shallow. It seems to evolve according to the picturesqueness of certain locations (the televisual imperative), rather than the logic of the argument. I would like to see the television link flagged much more prominently on the cover so one is made aware in advance that this is not a serious work of history, but a potboiler designed to raise funds so that Ferguson can boost his earning power to the levels of equally (or less) brainy college contemporaries who went into finance or the law. Frankly, I was disappointed. I hope Ferguson will get back to being a proper historian soon.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Shelby Coffey III

Big money is intoxicating. During the great bubble of the late 1990s, I escorted one of the newly really rich to be interviewed at CNN, where I headed the financial network. “I just made $400 million today,” he boomed, taking the stairs two at a time. The air around him seemed charged with electric good fortune.

Several years later, I saw him again. He was several billion dollars less wealthy. He seemed kind, more thoughtful, a touch fragile. (There are none of us so weak we cannot bear our friends’ misfortunes, as the acerbic French epigrammist has it.) The Really Rich man had become merely rich, and his pain seemed palpable. What would it be like, I wondered, to wake up thinking: I just lost $400 million yesterday?

The curses and the blessings, the seductions and the traps of money give Niall Ferguson the most redolent of subjects for The Ascent of Money, his excellent, just-in-time guide to the history of finance and financial crisis. A lively writer (author of Empire and The War of the World), a professor of history at Harvard and a master of anecdote and aphorism, Ferguson says he took Jacob Bronowski’s hymn to human invention, “The Ascent of Man,” as a model. Just as Bronowski’s 1973 BBC documentaries traced the beneficial impact of science and art, Ferguson shows how promises and paper have lifted humans from subsistence farmers in Babylon to Masters of the Universe on Wall Street.

Among his core arguments is that “poverty is not the result of rapacious financiers exploiting the poor. It has much more to do with the lack of financial institutions, with the absence of banks, not their presence.” Money, he contends, is essential to human progress; it is “trust inscribed” on paper or metal, and without that trust we would all be poorer.

But now, right now in the dark autumn of 2008, comes the shadow of mistrust. It may fall over us at different times and places . . . somewhere between the relentlessly down-pointing red arrows on CNBC and the increasingly bitter 401(k) jokes of late-night comedians . . . between the latest Congressional testimony from used-to-be financial wizards and the lineup of bailout candidates winging to Washington, hands out. But who among us has not felt the chill?

The financial system, Ferguson writes, “magnifies what we human beings are like . . . our tendency to overreact” to booms and busts, enriching the “lucky and the smart, impoverishing the unlucky and not-so-smart.” In this way, money is a mirror, and “it is not the fault of the mirror,” he notes, “if it reflects our blemishes as clearly as our beauty.”

The pleasure of reading Ferguson’s treatment comes partly from the clarity of his explanations of financial concepts but mostly from his pen portraits of the extravagantly gifted and flawed characters who have led money’s long rise. He shows us how far we have come since Mesopotamian moneylenders developed rudimentary accounting around 1,000 B.C. and the Medici created elements of modern banking in 14th- and 15th-century Florence. But he also weaves a long series of manias, panics and crashes into his tale. The Medici family’s surviving papers, he notes, bear scorch marks from the vengeful reformist Savonarola, who set up a Bonfire of the Vanities to destroy sinful goods and sent the Medici packing in one of the periodic reversals of fortune to hit financial leaders over the centuries.

Ferguson sketches the rollicking career of John Law: Scottish con man, killer, genius, lover and creator, in 1719-20, of one of history’s great stock market bubbles. Law effectively took control of the French national debt, substituted paper currency for gold and sold shares in the company that controlled French Louisiana. As the shares rose in price and investors borrowed against them, the volume of paper money doubled in a year, breeding inflation, speculation and the new term “millionaire” before Law’s system collapsed. From that day on, Ferguson writes, all bubbles have followed five stages:

1) Displacement, as economic change brings a chance for extraordinary profits; 2) Euphoria, as investors take advantage of the opportunity, 3) Mania, as novices, crowds and swindlers rush in; 4) Distress, as insiders see their prospects for profit declining because of the mania and start selling; and 5) Revulsion, as all stampede for the exits.

Ferguson provides a more flattering portrayal of Nathan Rothschild, patriarch of the banking family and mastermind of empires. Nineteenth-century states needed to issue bonds to finance wars; Rothschild was at the ready. When Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, Rothschild made huge and risky bets on British bonds and secured his family’s dominance of the London market for half a century. When the Rothschilds turned down a plea to back the confederacy’s bonds, the fate of the Southern rebellion darkened irreversibly. “Money is the god of our time,” declared the German poet Heinrich Heine in 1841, “and Rothschild is his prophet.”

From recent times, Ferguson gives deft summaries of the lives of Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian champion of property rights for the poor; Milton Friedman, the apostle of monetarism, who saw the supply of money as the key to the economy; and George Soros, the hedge fund philosopher and financier of liberal causes. I found myself understanding Soros’s theory of reflexivity for the first time. (Market prices, Ferguson explains, are “reflections of the ignorance and biases, often irrational, of millions of investors . . . [which] affect market outcomes, which in turn change investors’ biases, which again affect market outcomes” — in short, reflexivity.)

Judging from the text, Ferguson finished writing The Ascent of Money in mid-2008, after the sub-prime mortgage crisis had hit but before September’s credit freeze and the subsequent plunge in stock prices. As I turned his pages about the soaring trade in complex derivatives, I wanted to cry out to Wall Street: Don’t go down that road, the bridge is out!

The shadow world of derivatives, credit-default swaps, the sales of U.S. bonds to China — all seem to bring brilliant results, until they get too big. Indeed, “Too Big to Fail” is the catchphrase of this autumn. But the follow-up question is: How do we know that whatever institution is wearing that label doesn’t harbor a hidden cesspool of putrid assets? When should we withdraw our “inscribed trust?”

In a provocative afterword, Ferguson wrestles with “creative destruction,” the benefits of allowing companies to fail and investments to sour. He doesn’t come to a definite conclusion, but he notes that viewing the financial world from an evolutionary perspective argues for weeding out what the political scientist Joseph Schumpeter called “the hopelessly unadapted” — and quickly. “The experience of Japan in the 1990s,” Ferguson comments, “stands as a warning to legislators and regulators that an entire banking sector can become a kind of economic dead hand if institutions are propped up despite underperformance, and bad debts are not written off.”

Ferguson is making the rounds with his new book, saying last week on MSNBC that the United States should follow up the G-20 Economic Summit with a “G-2″ meeting with just the Chinese. The professor also winningly confesses that even he is confused about the thrust of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion rescue fund. Ferguson has, nonetheless, written an admirably illuminating book that will take its place beside such modern classics as John Train’s The Money Masters, Peter L. Bernstein’s Against the Gods, and Adam Smith’s Supermoney.

Fear, greed and folly — according to a Wall Street maxim, you always have them in the market. If only you knew in which order they come, then you could make some money. But past results, as investment companies sternly warn, are no guarantee of future returns, not in 2008. Money descends, too.

Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Niall Ferguson makes a strong, compelling case for the development of money and banking as a catalyst for the advancement of civilization. Yet while some critics praised his clear, comprehensible writing, punctuated with anecdotes and historical details, others were nonplussed by his explanations and narrative detours. Several critics also bemoaned the book’s choppy and uneven structure—an echo of the episodic, six-part television series it was meant to accompany. So it seems the UK critics liked the book less because they had seen the show. Though perhaps best suited to readers with a fundamental understanding of financial terms and theories, Ferguson’s latest work provides valuable insight into the inner workings of the global economy, past and present. For interested readers, it demonstrates how our current fiscal meltdown fits into the bigger historical picture and laments humanity’s perennial inability to learn from this history.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

From Booklist
*Starred Review* British historian Ferguson follows Empire (2003), his provocative take on British history, and his equally provocative take on the American “empire” in Colossus (2004), with a not so much provocative as fresh look at the history of money and its ramifications on how modern life has evolved, since to him “money is the root of most progress.” One of his basic premises cannot be argued with: most people in the English-speaking world are woefully ignorant of things financial. To that end, Ferguson, in his desire to educate the general public, presents the history of money within these contexts: the rise of money and the history of credit, and the histories of the bond market, the stock market, insurance, the real-estate market, and international finance. There is an ease to his prose that leaves this complicated subject interesting to and approachable by any general reader. For the history and social-science side of the public library business collection. –Brad Hooper

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Apple Wireless Keyboard Retail Packaging Description:

The Apple Wireless Keyboard has been completely redesigned, inside and out. It features an elegant, ultra-thin anodized aluminum enclosure with low-profile keys that provide crisp, responsive feel. It also has function keys for one-touch access to a variety of Mac features such as screen brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, fast-forward and rewind, Expose, and Dashboard. Its compact design fits on your lap or on even the most crowded desk. And its Bluetooth wireless technology lets you use it just about anywhere within 30 feet of your Mac.The keyboard automatically powers down when you’re not using it and turns on instantly as soon as you start typing. This intelligent power management means you’ll get up to nine months of battery life based on average usage patterns. It also has an on/off switch for when you’re away from your computer for a long time.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72 in Consumer Electronics
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Customer Reviews:

The Perfect Companion
I love this keyboard. I’ve been using it since it came out (thanks amazon for having pre-orders!).

I didn’t want to get the previous version (I was hoping they would give us a keyboard with the number pad, but I finally gave in and grabbed this one).

They say it will last about 9 months (battery life). I hope it does and I can’t wait to test that out fully (I will keep coming back to comment).

My situation:

I’m using this bluetooth keyboard with my macbook pro connected to my LCD tv.

I’m sitting on my couch, with the keyboard on my lap (actually the keyboard box is on my lap, the keyboard sitting on top of it (slight elevation).

I’ve used it since it came out and I have no regrets. The keys have a nice touch to them (sort of a textured feel that just feels good on the fingers) and it’s very easy to get your work done.

I keep the box on my lap and keyboard on top of the box.

This serves 2 functions:

Slight elevation (better for the wrists) and when I’m done I can put the keyboard back inside the case (thus keeping dust to a minimum).

Pros:

Nicely designed keyboard with just the right amount of space between the keys (if you used the new thin keyboard from apple, you will fit right in, if you have used any of their laptops, the same applies).

Pairing takes a few seconds (very easy), and couldn’t be easier.

The keys have a nice textured feel to them, I love having the function keys and this keyboard really is all you need (it took me a while to see the light, don’t let that happen to you, less really is more).

9 month battery life (I can’t attest to this right now, but I can say I’ve had no problems thus far)

Box makes a nice case, and a makshift desk for your living room.

Cons:

No full sized option (though I do like the smaller size and would not want to go back now)

Not as nice as the keyboards on the key laptops (I was really hoping the new keys would be like the ones on the new macbook pros (which I have and love the keyboard), but these are the same keys as from the previous keyboard. (Not really a bad thing, nor a con, but thought I’d bring it up).

Bottom Line?

Couldn’t be happier, I highly recommend checking out this keyboard and making it a part of your home. Just be sure to keep your box, it’s a nice “case” and “desk”.

Works terrific with Windows too!!
I love Apple products, but must run a Windows 7 system for professional reasons. I greatly envied my daughter’s Apple keyboard, and a Bing search indicated that the Apple keyboard would work fine with Windows. Well, it does. There are a few Windows specific keys missing, and a few Mac specific keys that don’t do much on this keykboard, but really all the keys that almost all Windows users will want are right here. The keyboard installed on my desktop Windows machine in seconds as a Bluetooth device, and works flawlessly. I had no setup issues whatever. None.

The keyboard itself is a beautiful, minimalist device, but nonetheless constitutes a full-sized keyboard, albeit without the numeric pad. Despite the fact that I am a power touch typist, I have never once used the numeric pad on any keyboard, so I appreciate the notion of giving up the numeric pad in exchange for having a smaller device on the desktop. Not everyone will agree, of course. Also missing are the delete key and the printscreen key. I admit that I miss the delete key, but the destructive backspace key is an adequate substitute.

The keyboard seems to be just the right size for my hands (I am not a big guy) and although it is not one of the curved “ergonomic” keyboards, I find myself quite comfortable typing continuously with this keyboard. The keys themselves have a nice solid feel; most typists will like the feel of these keys.

I like the fact that this keyboard uses readily-available AA batteries. It shuts off when not in use, and springs to life instantly upon the touch of a key. Very good design.

Highly recommended for anyone who does not mind eschewing the numeric keypad, the delete key and printscreen. RJB.

Minor setup problems, but unbeatable now that its working!
In my quest to simplify and de-clutter my workspace, I was looking for a Bluetooth keyboard that took up as little space as necessary. I also wanted a keyboard with good action and a decent key layout. After hunting through other small keyboards, I concluded that this one was really the only way to go. Other Bluetooth keyboards either looked ugly, had terrible layouts, bad key action, or all of the above. This keyboard combines the best of aesthetic appeal, size, layout, and action.

Now on to the bad part: with a brand new Mac Mini, even following the setup instructions, the keyboard didn’t work out of the box. I had to use a USB keyboard to finish setup, then manually setup the keyboard in System Preferences. Once I had it setup, I noticed that the function keys weren’t working as expected. For example, when I pressed F12, Dashboard would open rather than increasing the volume. After changing all possible options, trying to manually specify the layout, and even trashing the keyboard .plist file, I still couldn’t get the correct layout. I ended up unpairing and repairing the keyboard with the Bluetooth preferences, and after that it worked as expected.

Other than that minor problem, I have to say that this is one of the best keyboards I’ve used. It has a very nice action, not mushy or cheap feeling like other keyboards I’ve typed on. And it is very compact, saving a lot of space on my desk. The only thing I miss is a dedicated forward delete key, although that’s the price of using a compact layout. I’ll probably end up remapping another key to fulfill that function (rather than using fn-delete).

I’m certainly happy with this keyboard, and given the choice wouldn’t hesitate to purchase it again.

Amazon.com Product Description
The incredibly thin Apple Wireless Keyboard features a beautiful, sleek design that only Apple could have dreamed up. But it’s not just good looks: with function keys for one-touch access to a variety of features and Bluetooth technology that removes all cables and clutter, you’ll have a keyboard that both looks great and works great.

Apple Wireless Keyboard At a Glance: Bluetooth for a cable-free and clutter-free desk Beautiful, ultra-thin design Low-profile aluminum enclosure with crisp, responsive keys Intelligent power management for great battery life

The Apple Wireless Keyboard features a sleek, ultra-thin design to save space on your desk. View larger.

A row of function keys offer quick access to features.

Bluetooth Connectivity for a Clutter-Free Desk
Your Mac works with the Apple Wireless Keyboard through Bluetooth capabilities built into both. Just follow a few simple steps to pair them. Then you can move your keyboard anywhere within range and wirelessly type away.

Smart, Compact Design Saves Space
Set the keyboard on your desk, and you’ll see that it takes up far less space - up to 24 percent less - than other full-size keyboards. And you have even more room to mouse comfortably alongside of it. You’ll also feel a difference when you type. Your hands will appreciate the low-profile aluminum enclosure and the crisp, responsive keys. Use the new wireless Magic Mouse alongside the Apple Wireless Keyboard and get the full effect of a cable-free (and clutter-free) desk.

Dedicated Function Keys for One-Touch Access
A row of function keys across the top of the keyboard give you one-touch access to a variety of Mac features including Exposé and Dashboard, saving you time and helping you get more done.

Get Outstanding Battery Life from Just Two Batteries
The Apple Wireless Keyboard now requires just two AA batteries - one less than the previous model. And its intelligent power management system conserves battery life. So when you’re not using it, the keyboard automatically powers down. The instant you start typing, your keyboard turns on.

System Requirements
Bluetooth-enabled Mac computer, Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later and Aluminum Keyboard Software Update 2.0, Existing keyboard and mouse for initial setup, Two AA batteries (included)

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is backed by a one-year warranty.

What’s in the Box
Apple Wireless Keyboard, Two AA batteries, Printed documentation

Enjoy a cable-free and clutter-free desk without losing any functionality.

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6′ x 8′ Camouflage Tarp Description:

Made of woven polyethylene, tarps are weather and tear resistant, UV lamination, heat-sealed seams, grommets, and reinforced edging with strong poly rope inside hem on four sides.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12556 in Home Improvement
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Features

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Customer Reviews:

Not Heavy Duty
These Tarps come in a package marked heavy duty, they ase not heavy duty in any sense of the word. I have a 6×8 that I am replacing that was much heavier and was a standard tarp. If you are looking for sometimg that will last do not buy. Go to Walmart and buy the blue 6×8 tarp for 4.88 and it will be heavier than this tarp guarenteed. I was looking for at least a standard gauge to replace my stantard gauge that I bought at walmart years ago that they don’t oarry at the store any longer. In my opinion you can send these back where they came from. On top of that I got charged double for shipping because I ordered 2, thanks for nothing.

not much to say….
works well.. i use it to cover firewood.. has been holding up fine for over a year..

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